Issue:
Uniformity of Handgun and Ammunition for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies
Background:
The Federal Government retains an extensive amount of uniformed and non-uniformed law enforcement agencies and occupations such as police officer and special agent. Current review of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) indicates 88 agencies receiving law enforcement training at this facility alone with additional
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Issue:
Uniformity of Handgun and Ammunition for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies
Background:
The Federal Government retains an extensive amount of uniformed and non-uniformed law enforcement agencies and occupations such as police officer and special agent. Current review of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) indicates 88 agencies receiving law enforcement training at this facility alone with additional agencies and units providing their own in-house level training outside of the FLETC scope.
Current Status:
While many of the agencies retain the same core mission in terms of basic law enforcement patrol or investigations, their issued handgun and caliber vary extensively throughout the Federal Government causing non-uniformity and overlapping, unnecessary acquisition costs.
Even within an agency the issuance of handguns varies greatly and in the example of the Department of Homeland Security, a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Officer, Customs and Border Protection Officer and Uniformed Secret Service Officer will all have different handguns, calibers, magazines and related equipment.
The designation and acquisition of a handgun and related ammunition is very costly and time consuming with agencies conducting their own separate reviews, performance evaluations and bidding process and then entering into separate contracts for the firearm and related ammunition and equipment.
In difference, the US Military maintains one primary handgun for all services, that being the M9 Berretta 9mm. A Security Specialist in the Navy is trained and equipped with the same handgun as a Security Guard in the Marine Corps. Sidearm ammunition and magazines in the Air Force are interchangeable with sidearm ammunition and ammunition in the Army. One joint military-wide review, performance evaluation and contract process was conducted rather than the multiple individual acquisition processes occurring in Federal Law Enforcement saving funding and improving efficiency for all military branches.
It is recognized that one handgun may not meet the specific mission needs for all agencies or occupations and specialized teams such as SWAT may need a different weapon however, the need of the FBI SWAT team should not vary from the need of the Secret Service SWAT team and consolidation can occur saving cost and improving efficiency.
Action Recommended:
•Creation of a strategic law enforcement handgun project at the FLETC which will identify all Federal law enforcement agencies and occupations and consolidate handgun requirements to improve uniformity and efficiency government wide. Project should attempt to consolidate handgun and ammunition needs to the lowest level such as one designated for uniformed personnel, one for plain clothes personnel and one for tactical response needs.
•Consolidate all review, performance evaluations and contract process for government wide issuance at the FLETC similar to the military process.
•Interject the proposed FLETC handgun management team into the US Military handgun acquisition process so that duplication of efforts is not occurring between the military and Federal service.
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